Dare to be more transparent when it comes to sustainability

The world of sustainability is rapidly evolving, and with it our understanding of it. Our expertise in this area helps us to offer you increased transparency. Where in the past, largely qualitative arguments were still acceptable to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, there remains in times of greenwashing an increasing need for sustainability to be transparent and quantifiable.

Impact on SDGs

We aim to address said need going forward by quantifying the impact our portfolio companies have on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our funds’ contribution to each of the SDGs will be disclosed in the figure below, with the individual SDGs listed on the outer circle in clockwise direction and the portfolio-weighted contributions of the fund expressed in percent shown on the inside.

The impact measurement, i.e. the assessment which of the SDGs a company contributes to, will be based exclusively on the companies’ own public self-assessment. Contributions will at the moment not be weighted according to company revenues. A company with significantly higher sales and thus presumably also a larger area of influence, will therefore not be explicitly weighted higher.

However, due to the strong relationship between a company's sales, its market capitalisation and its portfolio weighting in our funds, this effect will largely cancel out automatically.

The reasons we opted for this method of impact measurement, is mostly because it is transparent and easily comprehensible. While the disadvantages of this approach certainly include a possible lack of objectivity in the companies’ self-assessment, we find this criticism to also be valid in the case of impact measurements conducted by rating agencies or investment funds. In our opinion, the advantages therefore currently outweigh the disadvantages. And in the medium term, we also intend to add relevant key performance indicators to substantiate the companies’ self-assessments.

With above-average contributions to SDGs #2 (zero hunger), #3 (good health and well-being), #12 (responsible consumption and production), #13 (climate action) and #14 (life below water), the results appear to be largely in line with our expectations of seafood as a comparatively healthy and resource-efficient source of food.